The Lion King at the New Amsterdam Theatre, 2003

Broadway theatre,^[1] commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City.^[2] Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

The Broadway theatre district is a popular tourist attraction in New York. According to The Broadway League, Broadway shows sold approximately $1.081 billion worth of tickets in calendar year 2011, compared with $1.037 billion for 2010. Attendance in 2011 was 12.13 million.^[3]

18th and 19th centuries[link]

Interior of the Park Theatre, built in 1798

Early theatre in New York[link]

New York did not have a significant theatre presence until about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street, which held about 280 people. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggar's Opera.^[4] In 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice and The Anatomist. The company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the year the 2,000-seat Park Theatre was built on Chatham Street (now called Park Row).^[4] The Bowery Theatre opened in 1826,^[5] followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, and especially so with the arrival of the Virginia Minstrels in the 1840s.^[6]

By the 1840s, P.T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblo's Garden opened and soon became one of New York's premiere nightspots. The 3,000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. The Astor Place Theatre opened in 1847. A riot broke out in 1849 when the lower-class patrons of the Bowery objected to what they perceived as snobbery by the upper class audiences at Astor Place: "After the Astor Place Riot of 1849, entertainment in New York City was divided along class lines: opera was chiefly for the upper middle and upper classes, minstrel shows and melodramas for the middle class, variety shows in concert saloons for men of the working class and the slumming middle class.^[7]

The plays of William Shakespeare were frequently performed on the Broadway stage during the period, most notably by American actor Edwin Booth who was internationally known for his performance as Hamlet. Booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865 (with the run ending just a few months before Booth's brother John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln), and would later revive the role at his own Booth's Theatre (which was managed for a time by his brother Junius Brutus Booth, Jr.). Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, and Charles Fechter.

1868 programme for Ixion

Lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompson's troupe, called the "British Blondes", was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season. "The eccentricities of pantomime and burlesque—with their curious combination of comedy, parody, satire, improvisation, song and dance, variety acts, cross-dressing, extravagant stage effects, risqué jokes and saucy costumes—while familiar enough to British audiences, took New York by storm."^[8] The six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years.^[9]

Birth of the musical and post-Civil War[link]

Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, seeking less expensive real estate prices. In 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Theatres did not arrive in the Times Square area until the early 1900s, and the Broadway theatres did not consolidate there until a large number of theatres were built around the square in the 1920s and 1930s. Broadway's first "long-run" musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857. New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London,^[10] but Laura Keene's "musical burletta" Seven Sisters (1860) shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keene's troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, D.C. that Abraham Lincoln was shot.

The Black Crook (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical^[11]

The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a "musical comedy."^[11]

Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 (The Mulligan Guard Picnic) and 1885, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. These musical comedies featured characters and situations taken from the everyday life of New York's lower classes and represented a significant step forward from vaudeville and burlesque, towards a more literate form. They starred high quality singers (Lillian Russell, Vivienne Segal, and Fay Templeton), instead of the women of questionable repute who had starred in earlier musical forms.

As transportation improved, poverty in New York diminished, and street lighting made for safer travel at night, the number of potential patrons for the growing number of theatres increased enormously. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits and improved production values. As in England, during the latter half of the century the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women. Gilbert and Sullivan's family-friendly comic opera hits, beginning with H.M.S. Pinafore in 1878, were imported to New York (by the authors and also in numerous pirated productions). They were imitated in New York by American productions such as Reginald Dekoven's Robin Hood (1891) and John Philip Sousa's El Capitan (1896), along with operas, ballets and other British and European hits.

1890s and later[link]

Charles Hoyt's A Trip to Chinatown (1891) became Broadway's long-run champion, holding the stage for 657 performances. This would not be surpassed until Irene in 1919. In 1896, theatre owners Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger formed the Theatrical Syndicate, which controlled almost every legitimate theatre in the U.S. for the next sixteen years.^[12] However, smaller vaudeville and variety houses proliferated, and Off-Broadway was well established by the end of the 19th century.

A Trip to Coontown (1898) was the first musical comedy entirely produced and performed by African Americans in a Broadway theatre (largely inspired by the routines of the minstrel shows), followed by the ragtime-tinged Clorindy the Origin of the Cakewalk (1898), and the highly successful In Dahomey (1902). Hundreds of musical comedies were staged on Broadway in the 1890s and early 1900s made up of songs written in New York's Tin Pan Alley involving composers such as Gus Edwards, John Walter Bratton, and George M. Cohan (Little Johnny Jones (1904), 45 Minutes From Broadway (1906), and George Washington Jr. (1906)). Still, New York runs continued to be relatively short, with a few exceptions, compared with London runs, until World War I.^[10] A few very successful British musicals continued to achieve great success in New York, including Florodora in 1900–01.

Victor Herbert

In the early years of the 20th century, translations of popular late-19th century continental operettas were joined by the "Princess Theatre" shows of the 1910s by writers such as P. G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton and Harry B. Smith. Victor Herbert, whose work included some intimate musical plays with modern settings as well as his string of famous operettas (The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), and Naughty Marietta (1910)).^[13]

Beginning with The Red Mill, Broadway shows installed electric signs outside the theatres. Since colored bulbs burned out too quickly, white lights were used, and Broadway was nicknamed "The Great White Way." In August 1919, the Actors Equity Association demanded a standard contract for all professional productions. After a strike shut down all the theatres, the producers were forced to agree. By the 1920s, the Shubert Brothers had risen to take over the majority of the theatres from the Erlanger syndicate.^[14]

The Winter Garden, Maxine Elliott's, Casino, and Knickerbocker Theatres on Broadway in 1920.

The motion picture mounted a challenge to the stage. At first, films were silent and presented only limited competition. Nevertheless, by the end of the 1920s, films like The Jazz Singer could be presented with synchronized sound, and critics wondered if the cinema would replace live theatre altogether. The musicals of the Roaring Twenties, borrowing from vaudeville, music hall and other light entertainments, tended to ignore plot in favor of emphasizing star actors and actresses, big dance routines, and popular songs. Florenz Ziegfeld produced annual spectacular song-and-dance revues on Broadway featuring extravagant sets and elaborate costumes, but there was little to tie the various numbers together. Typical of the 1920s were lighthearted productions like Sally; Lady Be Good; Sunny; No, No, Nanette; Harlem; Oh, Kay!; and Funny Face. Their books may have been forgettable, but they produced enduring standards from George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans, and Rodgers and Hart, among others, and Noël Coward, Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml continued in the vein of Victor Herbert. Clearly, the live theatre survived the invention of cinema.

Leaving these comparatively frivolous entertainments behind, and taking the drama a giant step forward, Show Boat, premiered on December 27, 1927 at the Ziegfeld Theatre, representing a complete integration of book and score, with dramatic themes, as told through the music, dialogue, setting and movement, woven together more seamlessly than in previous musicals. It ran for 572 performances.

The 1920s also spawned a new age of American playwright with the emergence of Eugene O'Neill, whose plays Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, The Hairy Ape, Strange Interlude and Mourning Becomes Electra proved that there was an audience for serious drama on Broadway, and O'Neill's success paved the way for major dramatists like Elmer Rice, Maxwell Anderson, Robert E. Sherwood, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller, as well as writers of comedy like George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Classical revivals also proved popular with Broadway theatre-goers, notably John Barrymore in Hamlet and Richard III, John Gielgud in Hamlet, The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing, Walter Hampden and Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac, Paul Robeson and Ferrer in Othello, Maurice Evans in Richard II and the plays of George Bernard Shaw, and Katharine Cornell in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and Candida

After the lean years of the Great Depression, Broadway theatre entered a golden age with the blockbuster hit Oklahoma!, in 1943, which ran for 2,212 performances. Hit after hit followed on Broadway, and the Broadway theatre attained the highest level of international prestige in theatre.

The Tony Awards were established in 1947 to recognize achievement in live American theatre, especially Broadway theatre.

Broadway today[link]

Schedule[link]

Although there are now more exceptions than previously, generally shows with open-ended runs have evening performances Tuesday through Saturday with a 7pm or 8pm "curtain" and afternoon "matinée" performances on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, at 2pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays and 3pm on Sundays, making an eight performance week. On this schedule, shows do not play on Monday, and the shows and theatres are said to be "dark" on that day.^[15][16] Actors and the crew in these shows tend to regard Sunday evening through Tuesday evening as their "weekend". The Tony award presentation ceremony is usually held on a Sunday evening in June to fit into this schedule.

In recent years, some shows have moved their Tuesday show time an hour earlier to 7 pm.^[15] The rationale for the move was that fewer tourists took in shows midweek, so the Tuesday attendance in particular depends on local audience members. The earlier curtain therefore allows suburban patrons time after a show to get home by a reasonable hour. Some shows, especially those produced by Disney, change their performance schedules fairly frequently, depending on the season, in order to maximize access to their targeted audience.

Personnel[link]

Both musicals and stage plays on Broadway often rely on casting well-known performers in leading roles to draw larger audiences or bring in new audience members to the theatre. Actors from movies and television are frequently cast for the revivals of Broadway shows or are used to replace actors leaving a cast. There are still, however, performers who are primarily stage actors, spending most of their time "on the boards", and appearing in television and in screen roles only secondarily. As Patrick Healy of the New York Times noted, "Broadway once had many homegrown stars who committed to working on a show for a year, as Nathan Lane has for The Addams Family. In 2010, some theater heavyweights like Mr. Lane were not even nominated; instead, several Tony Awards were given for productions that were always intended to be short-timers on Broadway, given that many of their film-star performers had to move on to other commitments."^[17] According to an article by Mark Shenton, "One of the biggest changes to the commercial theatrical landscape—on both sides of the Atlantic—over the past decade or so is that sightings of big star names turning out to do plays has gone up; but the runs they are prepared to commit to has gone down. Time was that a producer would require a minimum commitment from his star of six months, and perhaps a year; now, the 13-week run is the norm."^[18]

The minimum size of the Broadway orchestra is governed by an agreement with the musicians union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians) and The Broadway League. For example, the agreement specifies the minimum size of the orchestra at the Minskoff Theatre to be 18, at the Music Box Theatre to be 9.^[19]

Producers and theatre owners[link]

Most Broadway producers and theatre owners are members of The Broadway League (formerly "The League of American Theatres and Producers"), a trade organization that promotes Broadway theatre as a whole, negotiates contracts with the various theatrical unions and agreements with the guilds, and co-administers the Tony Awards with the American Theatre Wing, a service organization. While the League and the theatrical unions are sometimes at loggerheads during those periods when new contracts are being negotiated, they also cooperate on many projects and events designed to promote professional theatre in New York.

The three non-profit theatre companies with Broadway theatres (Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Roundabout Theatre Company) belong to the League of Resident Theatres and have contracts with the theatrical unions which are negotiated separately from the other Broadway theatre and producers. (Disney also negotiates apart from the League, as did Livent before it closed down its operations.) However, generally, shows that play in any of the Broadway houses are eligible for Tony Awards (see below).

The majority of Broadway theatres are owned or managed by three organizations: the Shubert Organization, a for-profit arm of the non-profit Shubert Foundation, which owns seventeen theatres (it recently retained full ownership of the Music Box from the Irving Berlin Estate); The Nederlander Organization, which controls nine theatres; and Jujamcyn, which owns five Broadway houses.

Runs[link]

Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers" or "angels"), and therefore have open-ended runs (duration that the production plays), meaning that the length of their presentation is not set beforehand, but depends on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales. Investing in a commercial production carries a varied degree of financial risk. Shows do not necessarily have to make a profit immediately. If they are making their "nut" (weekly operating expenses), or are losing money at a rate which the producers consider acceptable, they may continue to run in the expectation that, eventually, they will pay back their initial costs and become profitable. In some borderline situations, producers may ask that royalties be temporarily reduced or waived, or even that performers — with the permission of their unions — take reduced salaries, in order to prevent a show from closing. Theatre owners, who are not generally profit participants in most productions, may waive or reduce rents, or even lend a show money in order to keep it running.

Some Broadway shows are produced by non-commercial organizations as part of a regular subscription season—Lincoln Center Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, and Manhattan Theatre Club are the three non-profit theatre companies that currently have permanent Broadway venues. Some other productions are produced on Broadway with "limited engagement runs" for a number of reasons, including financial issues, prior engagements of the performers or temporary availability of a theatre between the end of one production and the beginning of another. However, some shows with planned limited engagement runs may, after critical acclaim or box office success, extend their engagements or convert to open-ended runs. This was the case with 2007's August: Osage County and 2009's God of Carnage.

Historically, musicals on Broadway tend to have longer runs than "straight" (i.e. non-musical) plays. On January 9, 2006, The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre became the longest running Broadway musical, with 7,486 performances, overtaking Cats.^[20]

Audience[link]

Attending a Broadway show is a common tourist activity in New York. The TKTS booths sell same-day tickets (and in certain cases next-day matinee tickets) for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows at a discount of 25%, 35%, or 50%. The TKTS booths are located in Duffy Square, in Times Square, in Lower Manhattan, and in Brooklyn. This service run by Theatre Development Fund makes seeing a show in New York more affordable. Many Broadway theatres also offer special student rates, same-day "rush" or "lottery" tickets, or standing-room tickets to help ensure that their theatres are as full, and their "grosses" as high as possible.^[21] According to The Broadway League, total Broadway attendance was 12.13 million in calendar year 2011 compared to 12.11million in 2010.^[3] The Broadway League also reports that approximately 62% of all Broadway tickets were purchased by tourists in the 2010-2011 season.^[22] By way of comparison, London's West End theatre reported total attendance of 14.3 million for major commercial and grant-aided theatres in central London for 2009.^[23]

Off-Broadway and US tours[link]

The classification of theatres is governed by language in Actors' Equity Association contracts. To be eligible for a Tony, a production must be in a house with 500 seats or more and in the Theatre District, which criteria define Broadway theatre. Off Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway shows often provide a more experimental, challenging and intimate performance than is possible in the larger Broadway theatres. Some Broadway shows, however, such as the musicals Hair, Little Shop of Horrors, Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, Rent, Avenue Q, and In the Heights, began their runs Off Broadway and later transferred onto Broadway, seeking to replicate their intimate experience in a larger theatre.

After (or even during) successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with a new cast and crew for the Broadway national tour, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country—the bigger and more successful shows may have several of these touring companies out at a time, some of them "sitting down" in other cities for their own long runs. Smaller cities are eventually serviced by "bus and truck" tours, so-called because the cast generally travels by bus (instead of by air) and the sets and equipment by truck. Tours of this type, which frequently feature a reduced physical production to accommodate smaller venues and tighter schedules, often play "split weeks" (half a week in one town and the second half in another) or "one-nighters", whereas the larger tours will generally play for one or two days per city at a minimum. The Touring Broadway Awards, presented by The Broadway League, honor excellence in touring Broadway.

Awards[link]

Broadway productions and artists are honored by the annual Antoinette Perry Awards (commonly called the "Tony Awards, or "Tony") which are awarded by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, beginning in 1947.^[24] The Tony is Broadway's most prestigious award, even compared to the Academy Awards for Hollywood productions. Their importance has increased since the annual broadcast on television began. In a strategy to improve the television ratings, celebrities are often chosen to host the show, like Rosie O'Donnell, some with little or no connection to the theatre.^[25] The latest Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 12, 2011. Other awards given to Broadway productions include the Drama Desk Award, presented since 1955, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle awards, first given in 1936.

List of Broadway theatres[link]

• If no show is currently running, the play listed is the next show planned (dates marked with an *).
• If the next show planned is not announced, the applicable columns are left blank.
• Capacity is based on the capacity given for the respective theatre at the Internet Broadway Database.^[26]

Upcoming productions[link]

The following have been announced as future Broadway productions. The theatre in which they will run is either not yet known or currently occupied by another show.

Confirmed openings[link]

Musicals[link]

• Rebecca: November 18, 2012 (Broadhurst Theatre)^[41]
• Chaplin: September 10, 2012 (Barrymore Theatre)^[42]
• Golden Boy: December 3, 2012 (theatre unknown)^[43][44]
• Annie: November 8, 2012 (Palace Theatre)^[45]
• A Christmas Story, The Musical!: November 6, 2012 - December 30, 2012 (theatre unknown)^[46]

Plays[link]

• An Enemy of the People: September 27, 2012 (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)^[47]
• The Big Knife: March 22, 2013 (American Airlines Theatre)^[48]
• The Heiress: November 1, 2012 (theatre unknown)^[49]
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: September 27, 2012 (Shubert theatre to be announced)^[50]
• Cyrano de Bergerac: September 14, 2012 (American Airlines Theatre)

To be announced[link]

Musicals, current season[link]

References[link]

See also[link]

• Broadway Bladder

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Broadway theatre

• The Internet Broadway Database
• The Houses of Broadway
• Broadway.com

Coordinates: 40°45′21″N 73°59′11″W / 40.75583°N 73.98639°W / 40.75583; -73.98639

Laura Osnes
Laura Osnes, February 2007 in Los Angeles. Photography by Nathan Johnson
Born	(1985-11-19) November 19, 1985 (age 26)[1] Burnsville, Minnesota
Occupation	Actress
Spouse	Nathan Johnson (May 11, 2007-present)

Laura Ann Osnes (born November 19, 1985^[1]) is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage. She has played starring roles in Grease as Sandy, Anything Goes as Hope, and Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Musical.

Biography[link]

Osnes was born in Burnsville, Minnesota, and raised in Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Her first acting performance was in the second grade, where she played a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. She attended Eagan High School, and then the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point for one year where she majored in Musical Theatre and appeared in Fiddler on the Roof and Seussical the Musical.

Laura also participated in productions at the acclaimed Children's Theatre Company the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and the world-renowned Guthrie Theatre before she graduated from Eagan High School

In 2005–2006 she returned to Minneapolis to be a performing apprentice at the Children's Theatre Company, performing in Working, Aladdin Jr., Prom, and Pippi Longstocking. In 2006, she choreographed and starred in Peter Pan in Eagan community theatre. She also played the lead of Sandy in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' production of Grease, but her run was cut short when she was chosen to compete in the nationally televised Broadway talent competition Grease: You're the One that I Want!.

Osnes was engaged to Nathan Johnson (as shown in the March 18, 2007 episode of Grease: You're the One that I Want!), whom she met when both were understudies on Aladdin. They were originally planning to marry on March 24 and honeymoon in Aruba, but postponed the wedding so that she could participate in the competition. Because the schedule conflicted with March 25, 2007 episode, they rescheduled the wedding to May 11, 2007, and are now married and reside in New York City.

Grease: You're the One that I Want![link]

Laura Osnes was nicknamed "Small Town Sandy" in the show, even though Eagan is a large suburb of Minneapolis, and a major city. She was a favorite to win during the entire course of the show, never showing up in the "sing-off" bottom two during the show's run. She was named the winner on March 25, 2007, which meant she would perform the lead character of Sandy opposite Max Crumm, the show's male competitor who won the role of "Danny." In April 2008, Osnes announced via her Myspace blog that she did not plan to continue with Grease when it was to begin its national tour in late 2008. Osnes and Crumm played their final performances as Sandy and Danny on July 20, 2008 and they were succeeded by Ashley Spencer and Derek Keeling, two of the runners-up of Grease You're the One that I Want.^[2]

[edit] Post-Grease

Osnes starred in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Broadway: Three Generations, a three-act evening featuring condensed versions of Girl Crazy, Bye Bye Birdie, and Side Show. The show was presented at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater October 2–5, 2008.^[3] She then played Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennet for the concert version of the new Broadway-aimed musical Pride & Prejudice that was presented October 21, 2008 at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York.^[4] In early December Osnes returned home to Minneapolis and performed in a local Christmas pageant. On January 11, 2009 she took part in the Rock Tenor Showcase, a showcase of a new concert experience that melds classical and Broadway music with rock-n-roll songs, at the Florence Gould Hall in Manhattan,^[5] and then sang at Dreamlight Theatre Company's "Bright Lights" concert series on the evening of January 26 entitled A Night with The Ladies.^[6]

Broadway career[link]

On March 10, 2009 Osnes took over the role of Ensign Nellie Forbush from Tony Award nominee Kelli O'Hara, who went on maternity leave, in the Lincoln Center Theater Broadway revival of South Pacific. She stayed with the show through October 4, 2009.^[7]

She then starred as Bonnie Parker in the world premiere of Bonnie & Clyde: A New Musical; the musical played at the La Jolla Playhouse from Nov. 10 to Dec. 20, 2009.^[8][9]

On December 20, 2009 Osnes performed in a Christmas special with the band at Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, MN.

Osnes returned to the role of Nellie Forbush in the Broadway production of South Pacific on January 5, 2010. She played her final performance on August 8, 2010. O'Hara once again returned to the production two days later to film the "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast of the show.^[10][11]

Osnes reprised the role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde at the Asolo Repertory Theatre, Sarasota, Florida in November and December 2010.

She then starred as Hope Harcourt, alongside Sutton Foster and Joel Grey, in the Broadway revival of Anything Goes, which began previews on March 10, 2011 and officially opened on April 7, 2011.^[12] For this role Osnes received nominations for the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical^[13] as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.^[14] She was also nominated for an Astaire Award for excellence in dance. Osnes departed the production on September 11, 2011 and was succeeded by Erin Mackey on September 13.^[15]

Osnes performed at the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors in a tribute to Barbara Cook alongside Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, and Audra McDonald.^[16]

Beginning previews on November 4, 2011 with a December 1 opening night, Osnes once again played Bonnie Parker, this time on Broadway as Bonnie & Clyde made its Broadway debut at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. She was joined by her Asolo Rep castmate Jeremy Jordan as Clyde Barrow.^[17] Other cast members included Melissa van der Schyff (2003's Big River) as Blanche Barrow, Claybourne Elder (Road Show) as Buck Barrow, and Louis Hobson (Next to Normal) as Ted Hinton.^[18] Despite a generally positive audience reception, due to negative critics' reviews and lackluster ticket sales the show closed on December 30, 2011. A cast recording of the show took place January 2, 2012 and was released April 24, 2012.^[19]

In January 2012, Osnes played the title character in an industry-only reading of the reworked adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Cinderella.^[20]

She then led the Encores! production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream, based on John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday. Under the direction of Marc Bruni, the production ran from March 28 to April 1, 2012.^[21]

On April 24, 2012, Osnes headlined a benefit performance of The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall as Maria Rainer. Also featured were Tony Goldwyn as Captain von Trapp, Brooke Shields as Elsa Schraeder and Patrick Page as Max Detweiler. Also in April 2012, it was announced that Cinderella is aiming for a Broadway opening in the 2012-13 season with Osnes in the title role and Santino Fontana as her Prince.^[22]

Broadway credits[link]

‡ = Tony Award nomination.
¤ = Announced; has not set an opening date.

Discography[link]

‡ = Has not yet been released; no official release date yet set.

Awards[link]

• "Outstanding Youth Performer of the Year", 2003, Minneapolis Star Tribune. For the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, with the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
• Grease: You're the One that I Want!, 2007, winner of the role of Sandy
• "2009 Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite Replacement (Female)" in South Pacific.^[23]
• "2009 San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award for Lead Performance in a Musical, Female in Bonnie & Clyde.^[24]
• 2011 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress Anything Goes
• 2011 Outer Critics Circle Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in Anything Goes
• 2011 Astaire Award Nomination for Excellence in Dance for Anything Goes
• 2012 Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Bonnie & Clyde
• 2012 Broadway.com Audience Choice Award Winner, Favorite Lead Actress in a Musical for Bonnie & Clyde

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Laura Osnes

• Laura Osnes at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview about her role in SOUTH PACIFIC
• NBC profile
• Chanhassen Dinner Theatres
• "Could the next Sandy be from Burnsville? NBC will find out", January 19, 2007, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
• Mpls.-St. Paul Magazine Article
• Laura singing the National Anthem at the Minnesota Twins Game

Santino Fontana is an American stage actor, director, and composer. Fontana graduated Richland High School in Richland, WA in 2000.^[1] His Broadway debut was Sunday in the Park with George in 2007. Fontana originated the role of Tony in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot from October 1, 2008 to July 4, 2009. He was awarded the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his work in Brighton Beach Memoirs. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program, class of 2004.^[2]

Broadway credits[link]

• "Algernon Montcrieff" in The Importance of Being Earnest (revival) (2011)
• "Rodolfo" in A View From The Bridge (2010)
• "Stanley Jerome" in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound (revival) (2009)
• "Tony Elliot" in Billy Elliot the Musical (2008) (originated role)
• "Alex/Bather/Soldier", "George" understudy Sunday in the Park with George Roundabout Theatre Company (2007) Broadway debut

Other stage credits[link]

• "Joseph" in Sons of the Prophet (2011) ^[3]
• Perfect Harmony Off-Broadway, Theatre Row (2008)
• "Matt" in The Fantasticks original Off-Broadway revival cast (2006) *cast recording^[4]
• "Hamlet" in Hamlet Guthrie Theater (March 4-May 7, 2006)
• "Simon Bliss" in Noël Coward's Hay Fever Old Globe Theatre, San Diego (July 14 – August 19, 2007) ^[5]
• Loves Labour's Lost Chautauqua Theater Company
• On the Verge Chautauqua Theater Company
• 9/11 Project Chautauqua Theater Company
• Once in a Lifetime Chautauqua Theater Company
• As You Like It Guthrie Theater
• Death of a Salesman Guthrie Theater and Gaiety Theatre (Dublin Theater Festival)
• La Traviata Washington East Opera
• Six Degrees of Separation Guthrie Theater (2003)
• A Christmas Carol Guthrie Theater

Non-stage credits[link]

• "Aaron Miller" in web series Submissions Only (2011-2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Santino Fontana at the Internet Broadway Database
• Santino Fontana at the Internet Movie Database
• Santino Fontana biography for The Neil Simon Plays
• Off Off Broadway Online interview, 2006
• A new prince takes the 'Hamlet' throne MNDaily.com, 2006
• Article on Fontana from the U of M
• Santino Fontana's thread on Friends of Billy Elliot

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